{"title":"Political communication in East Africa: An introduction","authors":"K. Orgeret, H. Rønning","doi":"10.1386/jams_00021_2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jams_00021_2","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43702,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78532722","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The phrase, ‘Coalition of the Willing’, emerged in East Africa in 2013, when three East African Community (EAC) members (Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda) forged a Tripartite Initiative to fast-track the EAC regional integration, sidelining Tanzania and Burundi, for their apparent ‘aloofness’ to integration. This coalition created tensions among the five countries, exacerbating an already simmering conflict between Tanzania and Rwanda involving the expulsion of ‘illegal’ Rwandan migrants from Tanzania. Informed by contemporary political communication and media framing, this article examines how these events were framed in five leading newspapers in East Africa: the Daily Nation (Kenya), the Daily Monitor (Uganda), The Citizen (Tanzania), The New Times (Rwanda) and The East African (EAC region). Through a thematic frame analysis, we interrogate the prevalence and implications of five prominent themes found in most political conflicts (attributions of responsibility, conflict, human interest, economic consequences and morality) on the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ media debate. The analysis reveals conflicting frames with a potential to inflame antagonistic media debates to the integration efforts ‐ by the resultant blame-game and opening up of historical wounds and personal differences, among the key players.
{"title":"A framing analysis of mainstream newspaper coverage of the 2013 ‘Coalition of the Willing’ initiative in East Africa","authors":"J. Njuguna, Margaret Jjuuko","doi":"10.1386/jams_00022_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jams_00022_1","url":null,"abstract":"The phrase, ‘Coalition of the Willing’, emerged in East Africa in 2013, when three East African Community (EAC) members (Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda) forged a Tripartite Initiative to fast-track the EAC regional integration, sidelining Tanzania and Burundi, for their apparent\u0000 ‘aloofness’ to integration. This coalition created tensions among the five countries, exacerbating an already simmering conflict between Tanzania and Rwanda involving the expulsion of ‘illegal’ Rwandan migrants from Tanzania. Informed by contemporary political communication\u0000 and media framing, this article examines how these events were framed in five leading newspapers in East Africa: the Daily Nation (Kenya), the Daily Monitor (Uganda), The Citizen (Tanzania), The New Times (Rwanda) and The East African (EAC region). Through\u0000 a thematic frame analysis, we interrogate the prevalence and implications of five prominent themes found in most political conflicts (attributions of responsibility, conflict, human interest, economic consequences and morality) on the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ media debate. The\u0000 analysis reveals conflicting frames with a potential to inflame antagonistic media debates to the integration efforts ‐ by the resultant blame-game and opening up of historical wounds and personal differences, among the key players.","PeriodicalId":43702,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79156518","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The article discusses political activism in Uganda and the role of social media. It focuses on two specific cases, the 2011 ‘Walk-to-Work’ and the 2017 ‘Pads4Girls’ campaigns in order to contribute to better understanding of the ever-evolving dynamic between political activism and the media in such campaigns. A disputed presidential election in 2011 in Uganda prompted opposition politicians to call nationwide protests. The architects of the protests hoped this would eventually lead to the downfall of Museveni’s newly elected government. The ‘Pads4Girls’ campaign on the other hand, was spearheaded by a female academic activist and provoked unprecedented response from politicians across the political divide, activists and unaffiliated individuals who added weight to the campaign. The article’s discussions feed into a broader conversation on the interaction of media and politics in semi-democratic contexts such as Uganda, where attempts to curtail media freedom and freedom of expression are frequent.
{"title":"Activism as political action in Uganda: The role of social media","authors":"Florence Namasinga Selnes, K. Orgeret","doi":"10.1386/jams_00025_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jams_00025_1","url":null,"abstract":"The article discusses political activism in Uganda and the role of social media. It focuses on two specific cases, the 2011 ‘Walk-to-Work’ and the 2017 ‘Pads4Girls’ campaigns in order to contribute to better understanding of the ever-evolving dynamic between\u0000 political activism and the media in such campaigns. A disputed presidential election in 2011 in Uganda prompted opposition politicians to call nationwide protests. The architects of the protests hoped this would eventually lead to the downfall of Museveni’s newly elected government.\u0000 The ‘Pads4Girls’ campaign on the other hand, was spearheaded by a female academic activist and provoked unprecedented response from politicians across the political divide, activists and unaffiliated individuals who added weight to the campaign. The article’s discussions\u0000 feed into a broader conversation on the interaction of media and politics in semi-democratic contexts such as Uganda, where attempts to curtail media freedom and freedom of expression are frequent.","PeriodicalId":43702,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75544577","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The article involves three main topics. The first deals with the role of referendums in relation to constitutional processes, and how they have become increasingly common, with a focus on African developments. The second topic is a description of the referendums in relation to the media coverage of the rejected constitutional change in Zimbabwe in 2000 and in Kenya 2005, and with subsequent elections in both countries shortly after, and then the referendums that accepted constitutional change years later. The last part of the article is an analysis of coverage in the Tanzanian press of the constitutional debate before the aborted referendum in 2015, followed by some comparative reflections on the relationship between referendum and election reporting.
{"title":"Constitutional referendums and the media in Africa: Reporting the aborted referendum in Tanzania ‐ 2015","authors":"H. Rønning","doi":"10.1386/jams_00026_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jams_00026_1","url":null,"abstract":"The article involves three main topics. The first deals with the role of referendums in relation to constitutional processes, and how they have become increasingly common, with a focus on African developments. The second topic is a description of the referendums in relation to the media\u0000 coverage of the rejected constitutional change in Zimbabwe in 2000 and in Kenya 2005, and with subsequent elections in both countries shortly after, and then the referendums that accepted constitutional change years later. The last part of the article is an analysis of coverage in the Tanzanian\u0000 press of the constitutional debate before the aborted referendum in 2015, followed by some comparative reflections on the relationship between referendum and election reporting.","PeriodicalId":43702,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79363051","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The sociocultural context, in which media advocacy is practised, results in several influential factors that affect its effectiveness, outcomes, and success/failure. The objective of this article is to identify and discuss the sociocultural and political factors for the media advocacy efforts in fighting sexual harassment in Egypt and to evaluate their influence on the campaign’s outcomes. Using the triangulation approach, in-depth interviews were conducted with advocates, media experts and policy-makers. The analysis revealed six influential factors that can inform and improve future media advocacy campaigning. The pivotal factor is ‘focusing events’, which are a golden opportunity due to its effectiveness in getting the attention of various publics and pushing forward the required policy solutions, which is discussed from the agenda-setting lens. Other influential factors include coalition-building, political will, public opinion, the image of advocates, and the influence of social media, which are discussed in further detail.
{"title":"The sociocultural and political influences on the practice of media advocacy: The case of sexual harassment in Egypt","authors":"Aya Shata, K. Amin","doi":"10.1386/jams_00028_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jams_00028_1","url":null,"abstract":"The sociocultural context, in which media advocacy is practised, results in several influential factors that affect its effectiveness, outcomes, and success/failure. The objective of this article is to identify and discuss the sociocultural and political factors for the media advocacy\u0000 efforts in fighting sexual harassment in Egypt and to evaluate their influence on the campaign’s outcomes. Using the triangulation approach, in-depth interviews were conducted with advocates, media experts and policy-makers. The analysis revealed six influential factors that can inform\u0000 and improve future media advocacy campaigning. The pivotal factor is ‘focusing events’, which are a golden opportunity due to its effectiveness in getting the attention of various publics and pushing forward the required policy solutions, which is discussed from the agenda-setting\u0000 lens. Other influential factors include coalition-building, political will, public opinion, the image of advocates, and the influence of social media, which are discussed in further detail.","PeriodicalId":43702,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79608855","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kenya’s media landscape has greatly transformed since the reforms of the 1990s, resulting in increased private ownership of media. The relationship between the media, politics and the citizen has been the most affected by these transformations. Using examples from Kenya’s 2017 elections, this article attempts to show how this relationship has changed and the opportunities and challenges for modern political communication. This article argues that although new trends in political communication have resulted in complex and dynamic political campaigns, they have also resulted in the atomization and alienation of the citizen in the democratic enterprise. This analysis is made against the backdrop of the political economy of the media theoretical perspective and, to an extent, emerging literature on media and globalization and attendant forces on the Kenyan society in general.
{"title":"Election reporting and githerinization of Kenya’s media","authors":"Wilson Ugangu","doi":"10.1386/jams_00023_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jams_00023_1","url":null,"abstract":"Kenya’s media landscape has greatly transformed since the reforms of the 1990s, resulting in increased private ownership of media. The relationship between the media, politics and the citizen has been the most affected by these transformations. Using examples from Kenya’s\u0000 2017 elections, this article attempts to show how this relationship has changed and the opportunities and challenges for modern political communication. This article argues that although new trends in political communication have resulted in complex and dynamic political campaigns, they have\u0000 also resulted in the atomization and alienation of the citizen in the democratic enterprise. This analysis is made against the backdrop of the political economy of the media theoretical perspective and, to an extent, emerging literature on media and globalization and attendant forces on the\u0000 Kenyan society in general.","PeriodicalId":43702,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82278058","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article identifies the key but common challenges in the regulation of online content in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in East Africa (EA), both in terms of the regulatory challenges and the controversies surrounding government legislative responses to curbing illegal and harmful online content. To address these challenges, the article proposes the incorporation of digital literacy into the existing cyber legislations through content regulation and digital literacy, a new concept geared towards empowering the internet users in EA to be not only aware of the existing content legislation but also develop critical thinking skills and abilities to take action on illegal and harmful online content on a daily basis.
{"title":"Regulating online content in East Africa: Potential challenges and possible solutions","authors":"S. Mutua, Yanqiu Zhang","doi":"10.1386/jams_00027_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jams_00027_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article identifies the key but common challenges in the regulation of online content in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in East Africa (EA), both in terms of the regulatory challenges and the controversies surrounding government legislative responses to curbing illegal and harmful online\u0000 content. To address these challenges, the article proposes the incorporation of digital literacy into the existing cyber legislations through content regulation and digital literacy, a new concept geared towards empowering the internet users in EA to be not only aware of the existing content\u0000 legislation but also develop critical thinking skills and abilities to take action on illegal and harmful online content on a daily basis.","PeriodicalId":43702,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84830194","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Climate change is a global risk that has affected all countries, which requires both global and national action. From the domain of scientists, who initially dominated climate debates, climate change has now become a public issue, with politicians increasingly influencing decisions on climate action, thus climate change becoming a highly politicized media topic. Given that media focus on key issues in society, this article examines the positioning of climate change in Uganda’s media as a means of gauging the level of political commitment to translate this global challenge into climate action. Premised within the issue-attention conceptual framework and based on the findings from the analysis of print media coverage in Uganda of the COP21 global summit, the article shows that climate change is not just a local national issue but is inexplicably linked to global frameworks, where voices and actors from the North not only dominate the global climate discourse but also transcend to the national level as reflected in the coverage, with most of the climate news being from foreign sources and foreign political leaders. Journalists are urged to pre-empt the local politicians to be active participants, not passive listeners in the global climate debates, such that climate issues become high on Uganda’s political communication agenda.
{"title":"Translating the global climate change challenge into action as reflected in Uganda’s media","authors":"G. Nassanga","doi":"10.1386/jams_00024_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jams_00024_1","url":null,"abstract":"Climate change is a global risk that has affected all countries, which requires both global and national action. From the domain of scientists, who initially dominated climate debates, climate change has now become a public issue, with politicians increasingly influencing decisions\u0000 on climate action, thus climate change becoming a highly politicized media topic. Given that media focus on key issues in society, this article examines the positioning of climate change in Uganda’s media as a means of gauging the level of political commitment to translate this global\u0000 challenge into climate action. Premised within the issue-attention conceptual framework and based on the findings from the analysis of print media coverage in Uganda of the COP21 global summit, the article shows that climate change is not just a local national issue but is inexplicably linked\u0000 to global frameworks, where voices and actors from the North not only dominate the global climate discourse but also transcend to the national level as reflected in the coverage, with most of the climate news being from foreign sources and foreign political leaders. Journalists are urged to\u0000 pre-empt the local politicians to be active participants, not passive listeners in the global climate debates, such that climate issues become high on Uganda’s political communication agenda.","PeriodicalId":43702,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85417165","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Half of all Chinese people living in Africa reside in South Africa, a community with a long history. On the surface, the South African Chinese community resembles a quiet community, yet it is actually a highly networked community that has developed networks and support structures to protect itself and to maintain its unique and vibrant identity in a dangerous environment. At the forefront of this is a community organization called the South African Chinese Community and Police Cooperation Centre. This community has also developed a home-grown South African Chinese language media to tell its own story. The South African Chinese media has been all but neglected by researchers and is analysed in depth here in English for the first time. This article examines six months of content, January‐July 2017, produced by South African Chinese media, lifting the veil on news reporting and networking in the South African Chinese community.
{"title":"Networking a quiet community: South African Chinese news reporting and networking","authors":"B. V. Wyk","doi":"10.1386/jams_00019_3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jams_00019_3","url":null,"abstract":"Half of all Chinese people living in Africa reside in South Africa, a community with a long history. On the surface, the South African Chinese community resembles a quiet community, yet it is actually a highly networked community that has developed networks and support structures to\u0000 protect itself and to maintain its unique and vibrant identity in a dangerous environment. At the forefront of this is a community organization called the South African Chinese Community and Police Cooperation Centre. This community has also developed a home-grown South African Chinese language\u0000 media to tell its own story. The South African Chinese media has been all but neglected by researchers and is analysed in depth here in English for the first time. This article examines six months of content, January‐July 2017, produced by South African Chinese media, lifting the veil\u0000 on news reporting and networking in the South African Chinese community.","PeriodicalId":43702,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83856610","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
China Central Television (CCTV) launched its first media centre in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2012 and is one of the main actors in the ‘China’s media go global’ campaign. CCTV-Africa’s reporting style has previously been engaged by media practitioners and academics in terms of its discursive practices. In 2014, a new paradigm studying the journalistic practice of Chinese media in Africa emerged. It has been argued that the journalistic approach deployed by Chinese media in Africa, especially CCTV-Africa, is more constructive than simply positive. This article aims to provide a structural analysis on the role of international news in mediating and reinforcing the ‘harmony of interest’ of transnational elite groups with empirical findings from the case study of CCTV-Africa and its constructive approach of journalism. The findings of this research show that the ‘constructiveness’ of CCTV-Africa is marked with the ‘non-interference’ diplomatic strategy of China in Africa which minimalizes the political involvement of China in local conflicts by reducing investigation on causes and emphasizing solutions. Simultaneously, it also produces an apolitical context which encourages economic development in African societies to cater to the grander politics of China in Africa.
{"title":"CCTV in Africa: Constructive approach to manufacturing consent","authors":"Yu Xiang, Xiaoxing Zhang","doi":"10.1386/jams_00018_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jams_00018_1","url":null,"abstract":"China Central Television (CCTV) launched its first media centre in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2012 and is one of the main actors in the ‘China’s media go global’ campaign. CCTV-Africa’s reporting style has previously been engaged by media practitioners and academics\u0000 in terms of its discursive practices. In 2014, a new paradigm studying the journalistic practice of Chinese media in Africa emerged. It has been argued that the journalistic approach deployed by Chinese media in Africa, especially CCTV-Africa, is more constructive than simply positive. This\u0000 article aims to provide a structural analysis on the role of international news in mediating and reinforcing the ‘harmony of interest’ of transnational elite groups with empirical findings from the case study of CCTV-Africa and its constructive approach of journalism. The findings\u0000 of this research show that the ‘constructiveness’ of CCTV-Africa is marked with the ‘non-interference’ diplomatic strategy of China in Africa which minimalizes the political involvement of China in local conflicts by reducing investigation on causes and emphasizing\u0000 solutions. Simultaneously, it also produces an apolitical context which encourages economic development in African societies to cater to the grander politics of China in Africa.","PeriodicalId":43702,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83127573","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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